The  Qiurch 

and 

International  Peace 


A  Series  of  Papers  by  the  Trustees  of 
THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 

I 

The  Cause  of  the  War 

by 

Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 
70  Fifth  Avenue 


NEW  YORK 


The  Church  and  International  Peace 

A  uniform  series  of  papers  by  the  Trustees  of  The 
Church  Peace  Union,  treating  the  problems  of  war  and 
peace  from  the  point  of  view  of  religion,  and  especially 
emphasizing  the  message  the  Church  should  have  for  the 
world  in  this  time  of  war. 


ALREADY  PUBLISHED 

1.  The  Cause  of  the  War,  by  Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D. 


IN  PREPARATION 

1.  The  Midnight  Cry,  by  Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D. 

2.  The  Way  to  Disarm,  by  Hamilton  Holt,  LL.D. 

3.  The  Breakdown  of  Civilization,  by  Rev.  William  Pierson  Mer- 

riU,  D.D. 

4.  After  the  War — What?  by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D. 

5.  Our  Grounds  of  Hope,  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D. 

6.  The  United  Church  and  the  Terms  of  Peace,  by  Rev.  Frederick 

Lynch,  D.D. 

7.  The  Church’s  Mission  as  to  War  and  Peace,  by  Rev.  Junius 

B.  Remensnyder,  D.D. 

8.  Adequate  Armaments,  by  Prof.  William  I.  HulL 


The  Cause  of  the  War 


Text:  “He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  is 
saying  to  the  churches.”  — Rev.  it.  7. 

What  is  the  cause  of  the  war?  It  is  the  most  important 
question  to  which  any  man  or  woman  can  just  now  turn  his 
mind.  No  word  has  been  of  late  so  frequently  on  our  lips  as 
the  word,  Why.  Men  have  asked  one  another  in  sad  bewilder¬ 
ment:  How  does  it  happen  that  mankind  has  gotten  into  this 
deplorable  predicament?  How  can  you  account  for  it  that 
the  nations  of  Europe  have  plunged  into  this  abyss  of  blood 
and  fire?  How  do  you  explain  it  that  Christendom  should 
bring  upon  the  world  this  indescribable,  unthinkable  tragedy, 
this  desolating  and  heart-breaking  horror? 

It  is  a  question  which  will  not  down,  and  every  one  of 
us  is  under  obligation  to  seek  an  answer.  We  cannot  say: 
“I  do  not  care  what  the  cause  of  it  is,  I  only  want  it  to  stop !” 
.That  is  a  lazy  way  out.  We  must  not  lay  the  blame  on  the 
country  we  happen  to  like  the  least.  England  lays  the  blame 
on  Germany,  and  Germany  lays  the  blame  on  Russia,  and 
Russia  lays  the  blame  on  Austria,  and  Austria  lays  the  blame 
on  Servia.  That  is  an  easy  way  out — too  easy.  We  have  no 
right  to  say :  ‘Tt  is  too  horrible  to  talk  about ;  please  let  us 
think  of  something  else !”  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  our 
fellow  beings  are  in  the  fire  of  a  great  tribulation,  and  we 
ought  to  come  close  enough  to  the  flames  for  them  to  scorch 
our  hearts.  When  so  many  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  are 
in  agony,  it  is  base  for  us  to  turn  our  back  upon  them  in  their 
affliction.  Moses  one  day  saw  what  he  thought  was  a  bush 
on  fire.  He  said :  ‘T  will  turn  aside  and  see  this  great  sight.” 
God  spoke  to  him  out  of  the  fire.  Shame  on  the  man  who 
is  so  stupid  or  selfish  that  he  is  unwilling  to  turn  aside  and 
ask  himself  why  it  is  that  a  continent  is  blazing! 


3 


We  owe  it  to  ourselves  and  humanity  to  investigate  the 
cause  of  the  things  that  make  havoc  of  human  happiness  and 
homes.  Hundreds  of  men  throughout  the  world  are  work¬ 
ing  day  and  night  seeking  the  cause  of  cancer,  that  implacable, 
deadly,  pitiless  enemy  of  mankind.  Unless  they  find  out  the 
cause  of  it  they  can  never  hope  to  cure  it.  Only  when  the 
cause  is  found  is  it  possible  to  hope  for  victory.  War  is  the 
cancer  of  nations.  It  is  just  now  eating  into  the  vitals  of 
nine  of  them.  We  must,  if  we  can,  find  out  the  root  cause  of 
it,  for  only  thus  will  it  be  possible  to  prevent  the  recurrence 
of  a  similar  catastrophe. 

What  do  you  think  is  the  cause?  Not  chance.  The  war 
did  not  come  by  accident.  The  boy  that  killed  an  archduke 
ill  the  street  of  Serajevo  did  not  create  this  war.  That  crime 
was  an  episode  which  took  place  a  few  moments  before  the 
curtain  went  up.  The  great  tragedy  was  staged  by  forces 
operating  through  many  years.  We  are  not  living  in  a 
haphazard  universe.  Science  has  demonstrated  that.  Every¬ 
thing  goes  on  according  to  law.  Certain  antecedents  are 
followed  by  certain  consequents,  certain  causes  lead  to  certain 
results,  certain  seeds  produce  certain  harvests.  Wherever 
there  is  matter  the  same  laws  prevail.  When  we  look  through 
the  microscope  into  the  depths  of  the  world  of  the  infinitesimal, 
we  find  that  all  the  atoms  and  ions  are  under  the  dominion 
of  principles  which  not  one  of  them  can  escape.  When  we 
gaze  through  the  telescope  we  find  that  all  the  blazing  suns, 
and  all  the  comets  too,  and  all  the  starry  systems  swing  round 
their  appointed  orbits  according  to  changeless  law.  Every¬ 
thing  that  takes  place  in  the  heavens  above,  and  in  the  earth 
beneath,  and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth,  comes  out  of  some¬ 
thing  that  preceded  it.  Events  move  with  the  precision  and 
orderliness  of  a  military  parade.  There  is  a  law  in  the 
universe  of  souls.  Wherever  there  are  minds,  persons,  moral 
beings,  the  same  laws  prevail.  Human  history  is  not  a  Babel 
of  confusion.  Human  society  is  not  a  weltering  chaos.  Men 
and  institutions  are  all  under  law.  Certain  causes  produce 
corresponding*  effects,  certain  seeds  unfold  into  inevitable 


4 


harvests,  everywhere  and  always.  This  war  is  not  an  accident. 
It  was  caused.  Of  this  we  are  certain.  If  there  is  a  cause, 
we  must  find  it.  What  is  the  cause? 

Is  it  fate?  Is  it  due  to  an  unescapable  compulsion  which 
lies  in  the  nature  of  things?  Is  it  an  iron  link  in  a  terrible 
chain  by  which  events  are  bound  together?  Did  it  have  to 
come?  Many  men  say  yes.  Professor  Munsterberg  says 
yes,  and  so  does  Professor  Francke,  and  so  does  Professor 
Eucken,  and  so  do  many  other  men  of  less  distinction.  The 
idea  of  fate  has  always  had  a  strange  fascination  for  a  certain 
type  of  mind.  The  human  heart  has  long  been  haunted  by 
the  idea  of  an  inexorable  destiny.  The  pre-Christian  world 
had,  as  you  know,  three  goddesses  who  were  called  Parcae  or 
F'ates,  in  whose  awful  hands  the  destinies  of  men  were  held. 
The  early  astrologers  thought  that  human  life  was  pre¬ 
determined  by  movements  of  the  stars.  Out  of  those  far-off 
orbs  of  light  a  subtle  influence  sifted  down,  determining  the 
characters  and  careers  of  men.  But  against  this  idea  of  fate 
the  human  heart  has  persistently  rebelled.  To  the  sanest  men 
it  has  long  seemed  a  demoralizing  superstition.  Shakespeare, 
who  had  one  of  the  soundest  brains  God  ever  put  inside  a 
human  skull,  is  always  jabbing  it  in  his  dramas.  Listen  to 
Cassius  in  Julius  Caesar: 

The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 

But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings. 

or  listen  to  Edmund  in  King  Lear :  “Tins  is  the  excellent 
foppery  of  the  world,  that,  when  we  are  sick  in  fortune — often 
the  surfeit  of  our  own  behaviour — we  make  guilty  of  our 
disasters  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars;  as  if  we  were 
villains  by  necessity,  fools  by  heavenly  compulsion,  .  .  .  and 
all  that  we  are  evil  in,  by  a  divine  th.rusting  on.”  Samuel 
Johnson  expressed  the  conviction  of  the  honest  and  unspoiled 
heart  when  he  said:  “I  know  I  am  free,  and  tliat  is  the  end 
of  it.” 

None  of  us,  I  presume,  are  fatalists  in  the  realm  of 
individual  action,  but  many  of  us  are  fatalists  when  it  comes 
to  dealing  with  nations.  Many  men  are  just  now  talking 


5 


about  the  inevitable  clash  between  Slav  and  Teuton,  the 
irrepressible  conflict  between  two  irreconcilable  cultures. 
This  war,  they  say,  was  bound  to  come.  The  cause  of  it  lies 
in  the  very  nature  of  things.  The  men  who  speak  thus  have 
not  yet  shaken  themselves  free  from  the  entangling  sophistries 
of  the  necessitarian  philosophy.  We  Christians  can  never 
accept  the  idea  of  fate  in  the  life  either  of  individuals  or 
nations.  We  are  under  bonds  to  hold  fast  to  Paul’s  great 
declaration,  that  “God  has  made  of  one  all  the  nations  to  live 
together  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  has  appointed  them 
their  established  seasons  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation.” 
If  individuals  are  free,  then  nations  are  free,  for  nations  are 
composed  of  individuals.  You  cannot  get  fate  by  multiplying 
freedom  into  millions.  This  alleged  irrepressible  conflict  is 
a  figment  of  the  imagination,  the  creation  of  a  bewildered 
and  belated  mind.  If  a  Slav  and  a  Teuton  in  our  city  should 
load  themselves  down  with  deadly  weapons,  and  should  begin 
to  fire  at  each  other  in  the  street,  it  would  never  do  for  them 
to  set  up  the  plea  that  this  was  an  irrepressible  conflict,  that 
such  a  brawl  was  bound  to  come.  The  policeman  would  simply 
hustle  them  off  to  jail,  and  allow  them  to  stay  there  till  they 
came  to  their  senses.  We  have  no  patience  with  such  foolery 
as  that  in  the  realm  of  individual  conduct.  We  should  give 
it  no  quarter  in  the  realm  of  international  life.  It  is  the 
excellent  foppery  of  the  philosophic  world.  This  war  is  not 
the  inexorable  decree  of  fate.  It  is  the  result  of  the  abuse 
of  freedom.  It  is  due  to  wrong  ideals  and  wrong  choices, 
wrong  ways  of  thinking  and  wrong  ways  of  feeling.  It  never 
would  have  come  had  it  not  been  brought  by  the  foolish  and 
wicked  thinking  and  action  of  men.  Let  us  put  the  respon¬ 
sibility  where  it  belongs.  Do  not  saddle  it  on  a  fanciful 
scapegoat  called  Fate. 

Why  did  the  war  come?  Someone  suggests  that  possibly 
God  had  something  to  do  with  it.  Perhaps  war  is  a  part  of 
the  divine  order,  a  feature  of  the  system  which  the  Almighty 
uses  in  educating  mankind.  It  seems  very  harsh  and  cruel 
to  us,  but  possibly  it  would  not  seem  so  if  we  could  rise  to 

6 


a  higher  standpoint,  and  gain  a  wider  outlook  over  the 
centuries.  Is  not  the  world  built — men  ask — on  the  idea  of 
struggle,  and  is  not  war  simply  a  phase  of  the  age-long  strife, 
which  must  be  accepted  as  God’s  will  for  us?  The  survival 
of  the  fittest  is  a  divine  decree,  and  the  fittest  come  to  their 
own  in  war.  It  is  thus  that  certain  persons  argue.  Is  God 
the  cause,  then,  of  this  war?  No!  We  Christians  must  reject 
that  as  unthinkable.  Our  God  is  the  Father  of  Jesus  Christ 
His  heart  is  a  father’s  heart.  He  is  infinite  in  tenderness, 
and  pity,  and  compassion,  and  gentleness.  He  takes  delight 
in  mercy  and  forgiveness  and  kindness.  He  values  even  a 
sheep  or  a  bird,  much  more  does  he  value  a  man.  He  loves 
all  men.  It  is  his  desire  that  all  of  them  shall  be  filled  with 
goodwill  toward  him  and  toward  one  another.  Now  war  is 
a  device  for  settling  international  disputes  by  killing  men, 
young  men,  the  strongest  young  men,  men  who  are  sons, 
brothers,  husbands,  fathers.  You  cannot  kill  these  without 
killing  women  too,  for  when  you  kill  their  husbands,  sons  and 
brothers,  their  hearts  die.  They  continue  to  exist,  but  they 
do  not  live.  War’  is  the  most  cruel,  most  heartless,  most 
devilish  instrument  which  the  human  mind  can  conceive  of. 
Shall  we  say  that  it  is  the  beneficent  device  of  our  Heavenly 
Father?  Shall  we  say  that  it  is  his  method  of  educating  his 
children?  Never  say  that!  It  is  a  lie,  a  monstrous  lie.  It 
is  blasphemy,  unpardonable  blasphemy.  You  dare  not  say 
that !  The  man  who  says  that  turns  his  back  on  the  revelation 
of  God’s  heart  in  Christ.  He  tramples  on  the  message  of 
the  cross.  He  makes  the  Creator  of  the  universe  a  devil. 
He  takes  away  all  the  glory  and  bloom  of  living.  These  three 
things  are  certain :  The  war  did  not  come  by  chance,  it  is 
not  the  decree  of  fate,  the  responsibility  for  it  cannot  be  rolled 
upon  God. 

The  blame  then,  apparently,  must  fall  on  the  people. 
But  what  people?  Are  the  peoples  of  Europe  barbarians, 
lusting  after  slaughter?  No,  they  are  all  amiable,  industrious, 
quiet  and  peaceable.  They  love  peace  even  more  than  we  do, 
for  they  know  better  the  value  of  it.  Those  of  us  who  have 


7 


traveled  most  widely  through  Europe  know  best  the  virtues 
and  graces  of  all  these  nations.  The  British  people  are  charm¬ 
ing  as  we  all  know,  but  the  French  people  are  not  a  whit  less 
lovely.  You  cannot  judge  France  by  a  few  fops  and  harlots 
of  Paris.  One  must  get  out  into  the  smaller  cities  and  towns 
to  find  out  what  the  French  really  are.  They  are  wondrously 
rich  in  the  traits  which  the  heart  loves.  The  Germans  are  a 
noble  and  admirable  people.  They  are  not  bellicose.  We 
have  millions  of  them  in  our  own  country,  and  no  part  of  our 
population  is  more  peaceable  and  law-abiding.  The  Germans 
in  Germany — at  least  65,000,000  out  of  the  66,000,000  of  them 
— are  as  peace-loving  as  those  living  under  our  own  flag.  No 
one  who  has  lived  for  a  season  in  Germany  and  seen  its 
beautiful  home  life,  and  enjoyed  its  gracious  hospitality,  could 
ever  believe  that  this  war  came  about  because  the  German 
people  wanted  to  fight.  The  Austrians  also  are  fine.  When 
Americans  spend  a  summer  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol  they  come 
home  saying,  “The  Austrians  are  just  like  ourselves!”  That 
is  the  highest  compliment  it  is  possible  for  an  American  to 
pass  on  foreigners.  And  the  Russians  also  are  worthy  of 
high  praise.  The  upper  classes  in  Russia  have  a  cultivation 
and  refinement  equal  to  that  found  anywhere.  They  are  not 
a  semi-civilized  horde  which  has  made  no  progress  since  the 
times  of  Peter  the  Great.  The  masses  of  the  peasants  are, 
it  is  true,  ignorant  and  superstitious,  but  they  are  not  bar¬ 
barians  eager  to  kill.  Their  disposition  is  gentle  and  win¬ 
some,  and  Americans  and  Englishmen  who  have  lived  among 
them  declare  that  in  amiable  traits  they  are  not  surpassed  by 
any  peasantry  in  the  world.  Dear,  beautiful  peoples  of 
Europe!  I  always  like  best  the  nation  I  have  visited  last.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  say  which  race  is  on  the  whole  most 
lovable.  We  shall  not  roll  the  responsibility  of  this  war  upon 
any  of  them.  Let  us  be  careful  in  these  trying  days  how 
we  speak  of  them.  It  is  impossible  to  bring  a  just  indictment 
against  a  whole  people.  Let  us  not  speak  ever  of  the  hypo¬ 
critical  English,  or  of  the  hysterical  French,  or  of  the  con¬ 
ceited  Germans,  or  of  the  insolent  Austrians,  or  of  the  barbaric 


8 


Russians,  or  of  the  semi-civilized  Servians.  I  have  overheard, 
sometimes,  in  foreign  countries,  disparaging  remarks  about 
Americans,  and  I  know  how  such  words  cut  like  knives  and 
burn  like  fire.  Let  us  keep  our  tongue  off  of  all  adjectives 
which  stab  and  blister.  We  have  representatives  of  all  these 
nations  in  our  midst,  and  we  must  beware  of  the  sin  of  doing 
their  countrymen  injustice  and  giving  them  needless  pain. 
This  is  not  a  peoples’  war,  and  the  peoples  are  not  responsible 
for  it. 

But  how  does  it  happen,  then,  that  all  these  people  are 
fighting  so  furiously  and  enthusiastically?  That  is  because 
they  are  all  fighting  in  self-defense.  We,  too,  would  fight 
with  ardor  under  similar  circumstances.  If  our  country  were 
attacked,  the  most  peaceable  of  us  would  seize  a  gun.  The 
Servians  were  obliged  to  fight.  When  Austria  lifted  her 
mighty  fist  to  strike,  what  could  Servia  do  but  fight?  And 
when  the  armies  of  the  Czar  began  to  move  toward  Vienna, 
what  could  Austrians  do  but  fight?  If  they  do  not  fight,  their 
country  will  be  torn  limb  from  limb.  When  Russia  prepared 
to  strike  Austria,  Germany  had  reason  to  believe  that  the 
blow  would  fall  also  on  her,  because  in  time  of  war  Austria 
and  Germany  are  one.  So  that  when  the  huge  Russian  army 
began  to  move,  the  Germans  were  compelled  to  rush  to  arms. 
There  are  only  66,000,000  Germans,  and  146,000,000  Russians, 
and  Germany  is  fighting  for  her  life.  She  has  enemies  not 
only  on  her  east  but  on  her  southwest.  In  time  of  war  Russia 
and  France  are  one,  and  Germany  had  to  strike  France  to 
escape  being  stabbed  in  the  back  while  she  was  meeting  the 
attack  of  her  mighty  eastern  neighbor.  There  is  not  a  soldier 
in  the  German  army  who  does  not  believe  he  is  fighting  in 
defense  of  his  fatherland.  But  France  also  is  fighting  in 
self-defense.  She  has  received  repeated  admonitions  as  to 
what  the  next  war  between  her  and  Germany  would  bring. 
Two  years  ago  a  member  of  the  ’German  General  Staff 
informed  the  world  in  print  that  in  the  next  war  “France  must 
be  so  completely  crushed  that  she  can  never  again  come  across 
Germany’s  path.”  Do  you  wonder  that  Frenchmen  are  fight- 


9 


ing  with  desperation?  But  England  is  also  fighting  in  self- 
defense.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  when  Sir  Edward  Grey 
stated  to  the  House  of  Commons  the  reasons  why  England 
must  go  into  the  war,  he  did  not  frankly  present  all  the 
reasons.  He  named  only  two  when  he  should  have  given 
three.  The  one  he  omitted  is  the  deepest  of  all.  England  is 
in  the  war  primarily  because  she  had  to  defend  herself.  She 
could  not  in  safety  allow  Germany  to  take  possession  of  the 
coast  of  Belgium  and  the  coast  of  France  and  plant  her  huge 
guns  within  a  few  miles  of  the  English  shore.  Belgium  is  a 
shield  which  England  holds  over  her  heart  to  ward  off  a  fatal 
shot  from  her  continental  foe.  ]\Ir.  Churchill  has  frankly 
stated,  since  the  war  began,  that  the  life  of  the  British  Empire 
is  at  stake.  Every  Britisher  is  fighting,  then,  in  defense  of 
his  country.  Even  Russia  feels  that  she  is  fighting  in  self- 
defense.  At  the  very  beginning,  her  secretary  of  foreign 
affairs,  Mr.  Sazanof,  declared  that  it  was  a  question  of  life  or 
death  for  Russia  whether  Austria  should  be  allowed  to  go  on 
and  crush  Servia  under  her  heel.  Russia  has  a  double  motive 
for  fighting.  She  is  fighting  for  herself  and  also  for  others. 
She  is  fighting  for  the  rights  of  a  little  country,  which,  when 
it  had  been  bled  white  by  two  awful  wars,  was  suddenly 
attacked  by  an  empire  fifteen  times  its  size.  You  cannot 
wonder  then  that  all  these  peoples  are  fighting.  They  fight 
not  because  they  are  barbarians  or  because  they  love  war,  but 
because  they  have  been  swept  into  war  by  forces  which  they 
were  powerless  to  resist. 

If  it  is  not  a  peoples’  war,  it  is  possibly  an  Emperors' 
war.  This  is  a  claim  confidently  put  forth.  We  are  repeatedly 
informed  that  this  is  a  dynastic  war.  The  blame  must  be  laid 
at  the  doors  of  the  Hapsburgs  and  the  Romanoffs  and  the 
Hohenzollerns.  The  war  is  the  fruit  of  imperial  ambitions. 
But  is  it?  Which  of  the  Emperors  is  guilty?  Certainly  not 
Franz-Joseph,  an  old  man  of  eighty-four,  tottering  on  the 
edge  of  the  grave,  a  man  whose  wife  and  children  met  violent 
deaths,  and  whom  no  sorrow  has  spared,  and  whose  one 
supreme  desire,  as  he  himself  declared  in  his  manifesto  issued 


10 


to  his  people  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  was  to  spend  the 
closing  years  of  his  life  in  peace.  A  man  of  eighty-four, 
broken  by  years  and  sorrows,  is  not  likely  to  be  consumed 
by  dynastic  ambitions.  Where  shall  we  look  for  the  culprit? 
H^ardly  in  Russia.  Study  the  face  of  Nicholas  II.  It  is  not 
the  face  of  a  warrior.  It  is  the  face  rather  of  an  artist  or 
a  poet.  Remember  that  it  was  he  who,  impressed  by  the 
argument  of  Jean  de  Bloch,  called  the  first  Hague  conference 
some  fifteen  years  ago,  hoping  that  the  nations  might  agree 
on  a  reduction  in  armaments.  Read  his  last  telegram  to  his 
cousin,  the  King  of  England,  in  which  he  declared  that  he 
had  done  everything  in  his  power  to  avert  the  war.  Surely 
this  is  not  a  man  who  wanted  to  deluge  Europe  in  blood,  or 
who  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  what  is  going  on. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  criminal  lives  in  Potsdam. 
He  is  the  Kaiser.  This  is  the  conclusion  which  many 
Americans  have  arrived  at.  It  is  not  surprising  that  they 
think  as  they  do.  There  are  numerous  facts  which  have 
forced  them  to  their  decision.  For  many  years  the  Kaiser 
has  shovcn  a  fondness  for  having  his  photograph  taken  in  a 
spiked  helmet,  and  an  army  overcoat,  with  his  breast  covered 
with  military  decorations.  He  has  occasionally  in  his  speeches 
rattled  his  sword  in  a  way  which  has  given  his  neighbors  a 
great  scare.  He  has  taken  evident  delight  in  being  the  head 
of  the  mightiest  army  which  was  ever  organized,  and  the 
chief  of  the  second  mightiest  navy  that  ever  sailed  the  seas. 
Moreover,  it  was  he  who,  when  Austria  issued  her  brutal 
ultimatum  to  Servia,  declared  through  his  ministers  that  no 
international  conference  could  deal  with  the  problem,  and 
that  Austria  must  be  given  a  free  hand  in  dealing  with  her 
troublesome  neighbor.  Finally  it  was  he  who  declared  war 
on  Russia  simply  because  that  country  was  mobilizing.  Thcs<' 
five  facts  are  not  controverted  by  anybody,  and  they  have  led 
tens  of  thousands  to  hold  the  Kaiser  responsible  for  the  war. 

But  there  are  other  facts  which  must  be  taken  into 
account  if  we  are  to  arrive  at  an  equitable  judgment.  The 
Kaiser  has  from  the  beginning  of  his  reign  to  the  present 


11 


hour  declared  himself  a  loyal  friend  of  peace.  He  has 
repeatedly  said  that  his  supreme  ambition  is  to  have  Germany 
take  her  rightful  place  in  the  world  by  the  method  of  peaceful 
rivalry  with  her  neighbors.  One  of  his  most  memorable 
declarations  is  this:  “If  the  peace  of  Europe  lay  in  my  hand, 
I  should  take  good  care  that  it  should  never  be  disturbed.” 
Last  July  he  sent  one  of  his  chaplains  to  attend  the  Church 
Peace  Conference  at  Constance  and  urged  all  theological 
students  throughout  Germany  to  do  the  same.  His  critics 
may  say :  “Ah,  these  are  words !”  But  he  has  backed  up  his 
words  with  deeds.  He  has  been  on  the  throne  for  twenty- 
six  3'ears,  and  up  to  tlie  first  of  last  August  he  maintained 
pea^'e  with  all  the  world.  There  has  been  more  than  one 
occasion  on  which  it  would  have  been  easy  to  find  a  pretext 
for  fighting,  and  on  which  some  of  his  counselors  have  urged 
him  to  draw  the  sword,  but  he  steadfastly  resisted  all  such 
temiptations,  and  nobly  kept  the  peace.  It  might  be  said  that 
this  was  nothing  more  than  a  shrewd  diplomacy,  and  that  the 
only  reason  why  he  has  never  fought  before  now  was  because 
that  never  before  now  was  Germany  altogether  ready.  But 
the  fact  remains  that  Germany  for  twenty-siix  years  has 
maintained  the  peace,  account  for  it  as  you  may,  and  this 
fact  is  attended  by  a  second  fact,  that  the  men  who  have 
come  the  nearest  to  the  Kaiser  have,  whether  Germans  or 
Americans,  been  convinced  that  he  is  a  true  and  steadfast 
friend  of  peace.  No  Americans,  so  far  as  I  know,  who  have 
gotten  close  to  the  Kaiser,  believe  that  he  is  an  ogre,  or  a 
monster,  ora  heartless,  conscienceless  Napoleon,  or  a  diabolical 
spider  weaving  his  fatal  web  around  the  nations  of  Europe. 
They  have  found  him  an  afifable,  versatile,  gifted  and  noble- 
minded  man,  interested  in  music,  art,  and  literature,  full  of 
fine  feeling,  with  a  soul  dedicated  to  lofty  ends.  Mr.  Alfred 
H.  Fried,  a  winner  of  one  of  the  Nobel  prizes,  after  a  careful 
study  of  the  Kaiser’s  words  and  acts  through  twenty-five 
years,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  his  rightful  name  is  not  War 
Lord,  but  Peace  Lord  of  Europe.  And  Mr.  Norman  Angell, 
one  of  the  m.ost  distinguished  of  our  American  peace  workers, 


12 


wrote  a  few  years  ago  that  those  who  consider  the  Kaiser  a 
disturber  of  the  peace  of  the  world  are  speaking  in  ignorance 
of  the  character  of  the  man.  Before  the  present  war  began, 
the  Kaiser’s  name  was  in  the  list  of  candidates  for  the  Nobel 
peace  prize  of  the  current  year,  indicating  how  widespread 
in  informed  circles  has  been  the  impression  that  the  Kaiser 
is  a  power  for  peace. 

“The  sword  has  been  forced  into  my  hands,”  so  he  said 
as  he  started  his  armies  against  Russia  and  France.  He  went 
into  the  war,  he  said,  with  profound  regret.  It  pained  him 
— so  he  asserted — to  have  the  ancient  friendship  between 
Germany  and  Russia  broken,  and  to  find  himself  in  arms 
against  a  nation  so  closely  related  to  Germany  as  England. 
The  entire  German  nation  accepts  these  words  as  true.  They 
stand  by  their  Emperor  with  a  unanimity  which  is  almost 
unique  in  the  history  of  nations.  The  great  men  of  Germany 
without  a  conspicuous  exception  believe  that  this  war  was 
forced  upon  the  Kaiser,  and  that  he  entered  upon  it  because 
there  was  no  honorable  escape.  All  the  scientists  from 

i 

Haeckel  down,  and  all  the  philosophers  from  Eucken  down, 
and  all  the  theologians  from  Harnack  down,  believe  just  that. 
These  are  facts  which  must  be  faced  by  those  desiring  to 
arrive  at  the  truth.  We  are  inclined  to  ascribe  to  the  Kaiser 
more  power  than  any  individual  man  is  possessed  of.  It  is 
absurd  to  think  that  a  war  of  such  vast  dimensions  could  be 
caused  by  one  man  only.  It  would  be  horrible  to  believe  that 
we  are  living  in  a  universe  in  which  one  man  by  a  solitary 
act  can  hurl  the  whole  world  into  a  pit  of  fire.  A  Servian  boy 
was  the  occasion  and  not  the  cause  of  the  war  between 
Austria  and  Servia,  and  so  the  Kaiser  was  the  occasion  but 
not  the  cause  of  the  war  between  Germany  and  Russia.  The 
war  was  brought  on  by  thousands  of  men  working  through 
thousands  of  days.  We  must  find  a  cause  large  enough  to 
account  for  the  effect. 

In  what  direction,  then,  shall  we  look  for  an  answer  to 
our  question?  It  has  been  suggested  many  times  that  the 
root  of  the  trouble  lies  in  racial  antipathies,  and  commercial 


13 


rivalries,  and  religious  differences.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
all  these  exist.  They  are  dangerous  elements  in  the  world's 
life,  and  are  provocative  of  many  troubles.  But  they  did  not 
cause  the  present  war.  These  forces  have  in  former  times 
led  to  war,  but  they  are  not  responsible  for  this  one.  All  these 
mischief -mjaking  tendencies  could  have  been  checked  and 
directed  into  the  paths  of  peace  by  men  of  the  right  temper, 
working  under  a  right  policy.  It  is  not  a  war  in  which 
religion  cuts  any  figure.  The  Protestants  of  England  are 
fighting  by  the  side  of  the  Free  Thinkers  of  France,  and  the 
Catholics  of  France  are  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  devotees 
of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church.  The  bitterest  things  which 
are  being  said  are  said  by  Protestant  Germans  against 
Protestant  Englishmen,  and  by  Protestant  Englishmen  against 
Protestant  Germans.  Religious  beliefs  do  not  count  for  much 
in  this  war.  Nor  do  racial  antagonisms.  It  is  preposterous 
to  call  it  a  conflict  between  the  Teuton  and  the  Slav.  English¬ 
men  are  not  Slavs,  neither  are  Frenchmen,  and  yet  Slavs 
and  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen  are  bound  together  as  by 
hoops  of  steel.  Austria-Hungary  has  millions  of  Slavs,  and 
yet  those  Slavs  are  fighting  against  Russia.  Racial 
antagonisms  have  produced  other  wars,  but  not  this  one.  As 
for  commercial  rivalry,  there  is  only  one  such  rivalry 
sufficiently  fierce  to  be  thought  of  for  a  moment  as  a  possible 
cause  of  war,  and  that  is  between  England  and  Germany.  If 
that  was  the  cause  of  the  war  how  did  it  happen  that  England 
came  in  at  the  end  of  the  procession?  She  did  not  enter  the 
contest  until  all  Europe  was  ablaze.  Commercial  rivalries 
produce  irritation  and  lead  sometimes  to  international  com¬ 
plications,  but  they  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  present 
tragedy. 

Six  alleged  causes  have  now  been  weighed  in  the  balances 
and  found  wanting.  Let  me  state  what,  in  my  judgment, 
is  the  fundamental  cause.  The  war  is  the  result  of  a  false 
philosophy  of  national  life,  a  philosophy  which  maintains  that 
the  foundation  of  all  power  is  physical  force,  and  that  great¬ 
ness  is  to  be  computed  in  terms  of  brute  strength.  It  is  a 


14 


barbaric  philosophy  which  has  been  driven  from  one  field  to 
another  because  of  the  havoc  it  wrought,  and  we  now  see  its 
operations  in  a  realm  in  which  it  is  working  its  ruin  on  a 
scale  vast  and  appalling.  Out  of  this  philosophy  there  develops 
a  policy — the  policy  of  armed  peace,  the  policy  which  bases 
peace  on  the  fear  which  is  inspired  by  deadly  weapons.  The 
policy  was  long  tried  in  the  realm  of  individual  life.  Men 
went  daily  armed  to  the  teeth  to  protect  themselves  against 
one  another.  The  practice  led  to  interminable  brawls,  and 
feuds,  and  duels,  until  at  last  it  was  given  up.  Only  rowdies 
now  carry  knives  and  guns.  The  policy  was  then  adopted  by 
cities.  Cities  preserved  the  peace  by  arming  themselves. 
Every  city  had  its  wall,  its  moat,  its  drawbridges.  Its  armed 
forces  were  always  held  in  leash  ready  for  either  defense 
or  attack.  The  history  of  those  days  is  a  disgusting  record 
of  deadly  rivalries,  rapine,  and  slaughter.  The  policy  was 
at  last  banished  from  the  realm  of  interurban  life.  Cities 
situated  within  narrow  limits  bound  themselves  together  into 
leagues,  and  numerous  small  states  took  their  place  on  the 
European  map.  These  provinces  adopted,  however,  the  policy 
of  armed  peace,  and  the  result  was  constant  jealousies  and 
bickerings  and  frequent  bloody  collisions.  The  little  states 
grew  sick  at  last  of  the  exhausting  strife  and  rolled  themselves 
into  great  states  which  became  known  as  world  powers.  But 
the  old  policy  of  armed  peace  which  the  common  sense  of 
men  had  banished  from  the  realm  of  individual,  and  inter¬ 
urban,  and  interprovincial  life,  was  retained  in  the  realm  of 
international  life.  Men  knew  that  little  states  could  not  wisely 
adopt  it,  but  they  supposed  that  large  states  could.  They 
banished  it  from  the  administration  of  little  powers,  and 
retained  it  in  the  scheme  of  the  great  powers.  The  result 
is  a  great  war.  The  war  has  come  out  of  a  false  policy,  and 
the  false  policy  came  out  of  a  false  philosophy.  We  are  to 
seek,  then,  the  cause  of  the  present  horror  in  the  realm  of 
ideas.  It  is  sometimes  asserted  that  it  does  not  make  any 
difference  what  you  believe.  The  fact  is  that  everything 
depends  on  what  you  believe.  When  men  believe  the  truth, 

15 


it  is  well  with  the  world.  When  they  believe  error,  darkness 
falls  on  the  lands. 

Let  us  look  a  moment  at  this  philosophy.  The  modern 

name  of  it  is  militarism.  Militarism  has  a  creed  with  three 

• 

articles.  Article  one  asserts  that  war  is  a  good  thing.  It 
has  brought  many  blessings  in  the  past.  It  will  bring  many 
more  in  the  future.  It  is  indispensable  for  national  well-being. 
Without  war  the  virile  virtues  gradually  decay,  and  the  moral 
fiber  of  nations  rots.  This  is  the  plain  teaching  of  all  modern 
militarists  from  von  Moltke  to  von  Bernhardi.  Article  second 
is  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  first.  Since  war  is  good 
<^nd  indispensable,  and  sure  to  come,  because  it  lies  in  the 
structure  of  the  great  world  plan,  therefore  the  supreme  duty 
of  a  nation  is  to  be  ready  for  it.  Equip  yourselves  with  all 
the  necessary  apparatus.  You  must  lay  in  an  enormous  stock 
of  guns  and  ammunition.  You  must  have  the  latest  weapons. 
Old  weapons  are  valueless.  You  must  buy  the  costliest  of 
them,  for  only  these  are  effective  when  the  day  of  battle 
comes.  No  matter  what  the  cost  is  the  nation  must  submit 
to  it,  even  if  it  is  compelled  to  mortgage  the  resources  of 
generations  yet  unborn.  But  weapons  are  of  no  value  unless 
men  know  how  to  use  them.  These  modern  instruments  of 
blood  are  complicated,  and  they  require  a  deal  of  practice. 
Therefore  great  masses  of  men  must  spend  their  life  in  drill¬ 
ing.  They  must  practice  constantly  war  games  on  the  sea, 
and  on  the  land,  and  in  the  air,  for  “Preparedness”  is  the  one 
golden  motto  of  a  nation.  The  third  article  of  the  creed  is 
that  army  and  naval  officials  constitute  a  superior  caste.  They 
are  the  anointed  custodians  of  the  nation’s  honor,  the  divine 
guardians  of  the  nation’s  treasures,  the  saviors  of  the  nation’s 
life.  Therefore  they  are  the  safest  counselors  of  diplomats, 
and  the  wisest  advisers  of  presidents  and  kings.  The  whole 
doctrine  is  tersely  put  by  a  rear-admiral  in  our  navy  in  an 
article  published  by  him,  shortly  before  the  opening  of  this 
war.  The  gist  of  his  argument  is  as  follows ;  The  influence 
of  an  ambassador  of  any  nation  depends  on  the  number  and 
size  of  the  guns  behind  him.  It  is  by  means  of  guns  that  a 

16 


nation  exerts  pressure  on  its  neighbors.  This  brings  the 
naval  officer  into  the  realm  of  international  diplomacy.  He 
must  stand  by  the  side  of  the  civil  diplomat  and  assist  him  in 
his  work.  Indeed,  he  is  the  better  man  of  the  two  because 
of  his  superior  training  and  his  longer  term  of  office,  and, 
therefore,  the  officers  of  the  United  States  navy  are  the  only 
body  of  men  on  whom  our  Republic  can  continuously  and 
safely  rely.  This  is  a  very  frank  and  modest  statement  of  a 
militarist  who  is  sure  of  the  divine  mission  of  the  navy.  Not 
all  officers  in  our  army  and  navy  are  mnlitarists.  Many  of 
them,  however,  are,  and  the  creed  which  they  hold  is  the 
creed  held  by  militarists  the  world  over:  War  is  good,  be 
ready,  and  leave  the  direction  of  international  business  to  us ! 

This  is  the  creed  of  modern  Europe.  All  the  great  nations 
have  been  brought  little  by  little  under  the  control  of  the 
General  Staff.  Every  great  potentate  in  Europe  has  had 
generals  and  admirals  tagging  at  his  heels.  The  war  was  born 
in  the  military  oligarchies  by  which  the  rulers  of  Europe  are 
hedged  in.  You  cannot  understand  the  diplomacy  of  Austria 
by  making  the  acquaintance  of  Eranz- Joseph.  You  must 
know  Berchtold  and  Tisza,  and  above  all  Hoetzendorf  and 
his  staff!  You  cannot  account  for  the  diplomacy  of  Russia 
by  studying  the  man  who  calls  himself  the  autocrat  of  all 
the  Russias.  The  Czar  is  held  tight  in  the  hands  of  a 
bureaucracy  which  holds  all  Russia  in  its  grip,  and  to  find 
the  real  rulers  of  Russia  you  must  go  to  the  grand  dukes 
and  the  counts  and  especially  to  Grand  Duke  Nicholas 
Nicolaivitch  and  his  staff!  You  will  never  understand  the 
diplomacy  of  Germany  until  you  get  acquainted  with  Schellen- 
dorf  and  Frebonius,  with  von  Bernhardi  and  von  Koester, 
with  Edelsheim  and  von  Moltke,  and  von  Tirpitz,  and  the 
other  giants  who  stand  round  the  Kaiser  night  and  day. 
There  are  influential,  able  men  in  Germany  beside  the  Kaiser. 
You  must  take  into  account  that  virile,  ambitious,  pushing 
crowd  of  thirty-one  thousand  officers  of  the  German  peace 
army,  many  of  whom  have  for  years  amused  themselves  by 
gossiping  about  the  joy  of  dictating  terms  of  peace  in  West- 

17 


minster  Abbey,  and  by  drinking  toasts  “to  the  Day”  when  the 
glory  of  Great  Britain  should  be  laid  in  the  dust. 

Germany  has  been  brought  more  and  more  under  the 
dominion  of  the  General  Stafif,  but  German  militarism  is  not 
the  only  militarism  in  Europe,  nor  is  it  the  oldest.  There  is 
a  French  militarism,  very  cocky,  arrogant  and  brutal,  as  we 
all  saw  during  the  Dreyfus  trial.  There  is  a  Russian 
militarism,  very  cocky,  arrogant  and  brutal,  as  we  had  a 
chance  to  see  in  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  when  a  gang  of 
Russian  robbers  tried  to  steal  Manchuria.  There  is  a 
militarism  in  England,  very  cocky,  arrogant  and  brutal,  as  the 
world  saw  a  few  years  ago  when  Great  Britain  stole  two 
South  African  Republics.  Militarism,  wherever  you  find  it, 
is  cocky,  arrogant  and  brutal.  It  is  everywhere  and  always 
the  deadly  and  implacable  enemy  of  mankind. 

One  of  its  fundamental  principles  is,  “Strike  first,  and 
strike  hard.”  That  is  the  law  of  all  militarists,  and  that,  you 
observe,  is  the  law  of  the  jungle,  it  is  the  creed  of  the  tiger. 
The  tiger  always  leaps  with  the  swiftness  of  lightning.  Its 
victim  must  be  crushed  in  the  first  attack.  Militarism  goes 
back  to  the  jungle  for  its  models.  If  you  are  settling  disputes 
by  reason  you  can  take  time  to  consider  and  sift  and  weigh ; 
if  you  are  settling  disputes  by  guns  you  must  be  quick  as 
a  tiger.  There  is  no  time  for  reason.  One  of  the  most 
appalling  features  of  the  opening  of  the  war  was  the  lack  of 
time  to  consider.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  telegrams 
and  notes  in  the  English  White  Papers,  the  one  of  greatest 
pathos  is  that  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  to  Sir  Edward  Goschen  on 
August  1 :  “I  still  believe  that  it  might  be  possible  to  secure 
peace  if  only  a  little  respite  in  time  can  be  gained.”  Time 
was  the  one  thing  essential,  and  alas !  there  was  no  time  to 
be  gotten.  The  cavalrymen  were  all  on  their  horses,  and  in  an 
instant  they  were  over  the  border.  You  have  seen  horses 
dash  out  of  the  engine  house  when  the  fire  alarm  struck. 
With  just  such  swiftness  dashed  the  armies  of  Europe  into 
the  arena  of  war.  We  are  ready!  That  was  the  shout  that 
went  from  mouth  to  mouth  around  the  whole  circle  of  nations. 


18 


For  forty  years  they  had  been  preparing,  standing  each  one 
in  shining  armor,  and  when  the  crisis  came  there  was  no 
possibility  of  delay.  For  a  generation  the  genius  and  the 
wealth  of  the  nations  had  been  expended  on  the  apparatus 
of  war.  They  had  all  prepared  for  war,  and  it  came.  It  came 
easily.  It  came  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  diplomats  to 
hold  it  off.  The  machinery  of  peace  had  secured  but  scant 
attention,  and  it  broke  down  under  the  strain  of  the  fateful 
hour.  The  messengers  of  peace  were  just  a  little  late  all 
the  way  round  the  circle  because  the  horses  of  war  were  on 
a  gallop.  One  cannot  read  the  White  Papers  of  the  various 
countries  without  being  impressed  by  the  fact  that  none 
of  the  ambassadors  wanted  this  war.  They  were  dragged 
into  it  because  all  the  nations  were  lashed  tight  to  their  guns. 
When  once  the  great  masses  of  steel  began  to  move,  their 
momentum  was  irresistible.  From  that  instant  Europe  began 
to  be  ground  to  powder  by  the  armaments  she  had  created  for 
preserving  peace. 

An  awful  crime  has  been  committed  against  humanity. 
This  crime  has  gone  on  through  many  years.  This  war  is 
retribution.  It  is  the  awful  price  which  nations  pay  for  doing 
wrong.  All  false  principles  have  in  them  retributive  forces 
which,  when  the  time  is  ripe,  explode,  working  immeasurable, 
unimaginable  destruction.  Wher  the  word  came  that  war 
was  at  last  inevitable,  some  of  us  who  have  studied  recent 
European  history  most  carefully,  and  who  knew  best  what 
such  a  war  as  this  would  involve,  felt  our  strength  going  from 
us.  We  sat  down  horrified,  stunned  and  dazed.  Some  of  us 
could  scarcely  sleep.  It  all  seemed  like  a  hideous  dream.  It 
was  all  so  needless,  so  foolish,  so  inexcusable,  so  crazy,  that 
the  soul  cried  out,  “It  cannot  be,  it  must  not  be!”  This  feel¬ 
ing  of  horror  was  then  swallowed  up  by  the  sense  of  helpless¬ 
ness,  sheer,  absolute,  agonizing  helplessness.  There  was  no 
deliverance  to  be  found  in  any  quarter.  We  turned  to  the 
right  and  there  was  no  deliverer  there;  to  the  left  and  he 
was  not  there.  We  went  forward  in  search  of  some  one 
strong  enough  to  stay  the  plague,  but  we  could  not  find  him ; 


19 


we  went  backward  and  he  was  not  there.  There  was  no 
tribunal  on  the  earth  with  authority  that  was  adequate.  There 
was  no  potentate  in  church  or  state  strong  enough  to  lay  on 
the  wild-dashing  nations  a  restraining  hand.  There  at  The 
Hague  stood  the  beautiful  palace  of  peace,  its  gates  closed 
and  its  oracles  dumb.  Beautiful  white  blossom  of  the  world’s 
hope,  all  shriveled  in  the  hot  breath  of  the  coming  storm! 
We  turned  to  the  heavens  and  there  was  no  help  there.  God’s 
arm  seemed  to  be  shortened  so  that  he  could  not  save,  his  ear 
seemed  to  be  dull  so  that  he  could  not  hear.  It  is  an  awful 
experience  to  stand  face  to  face  with  a  world-wide  calamity 
and  feel  that  man  cannot  save  and  that  God  himself  is  impotent. 
There  is  a  point  beyond  which  the  divine  mercy  does  not  act. 
For  instance,  a  man  is  a  thousand  steps  from  the  edge  of 
a  precipice.  HJe  walks  steadily  toward  it.  At  every  step  in 
all  the  thousand  steps  he  is  free.  He  can  turn  back,  or  he  can 
turn  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  but  if  he  takes  the  thousand 
and  first  forward  step  he  is  gone!  Man  cannot  save  him, 
God  will  not.  We  never  pray  that  a  man  may  not  fall  after 
he  has  begun  to  fall.  A  man  is  on  the  Niagara  River,  several 
thousand  yards  above  the  falls — he  has  two  stout  arms  and  two 
strong  oars.  He  drifts  down  the  stream.  At  every  moment 
up  to  a  definite  point,  he  can  turn,  if  he  chooses,  to  the 
shore.  But  he  allows  himself  to  drift  six  inches  beyond 
that  fatal  point,  and  he  is  doomed.  Man  cannot  save  him, 
God  will  not.  At  a  certain  instant  he  passes  beyond  the  realm 
of  freedom  and  enters  into  the  realm  of  coercion.  That  is 
why  the  Bible  says  that  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  living  God — if  you  are  doing  wrong.  We  are 
in  his  hands  all  the  time,  but  when  we  sin  beyond  a  certain 
point,  we  fall  into  his  hands  in  a  different  way.  On  the  first 
of  August,  1914,  Europe  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God ! 

Whatsoever  a  nation  sows  that  shall  it  also  reap.  We 
sold  slaves  once  in  this  country.  Negro  women  were  torn 
from  their  husbands  and  children,  and  good  men  stood  by 
looking  on  unconcerned.  Year  after  year  the  atrocity  went  on, 
and  it  seemed  as  though  it  might  go  on  forever.  Poor  black 


20 


woman,  she  could  not  protect  herself,  and  there  was  no  one 
else  to  protect  her.  And  so  one  day  there  came  a  war.  No¬ 
body  wanted  it.  It  came.  Lincoln  tried  to  end  it,  but  he 
could  not.  He  tried  again  and  again  and  failed,  and  then 
at  last  the  meaning  of  the  war  flashed  upon  him,  and  he  bowed 
down  his  great  soul  before  the  Ruler  of  the  world  saying, 
“If  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  by  the  lash  must  be  paid  for 

by  blood  drawn  by  the  sword,  even  then  we  must  say  the 

judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.” 
A  distinguished  American  statesman  long  ago  declared  after 
pondering  the  villainies  of  slavery,  “I  tremble  for  my  country 
when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just.”  Many  a  time  in  recent 
years  have  I  trembled  for  Europe  at  the  thought  that  God 
is  just.  When  I  have  seen  German  women  hitched  up 

with  dogs  drawing  carts  through  the  streets  of  German 
cities  while  their  sons  were  drilling;  and  when  I  have 

seen  the  miserable  poverty  of  the  Italian  peasants,  having 
little  in  their  homies  though  they  work  industriously  under 
one  of  the  softest  of  skies,  and  in  one  of  the  most  fertile  of 
soils,  the  product  of  their  industry  being  consumed  by  the 
army ;  and  when  I  have  looked  into  the  hovels  of  the  Russian 
peasants  and  have  seen  that  nearly  everything  had  been  taken 
off  the  peasant’s  table,  and  nearly  everything  off  the  peasant’s 
back  in  order  that  it  might  feed  the  army ;  and  when  I  have 
stood  at  Ellis  Island  and  watched  the  incoming  tide  of  Europe’s 
poor,  many  of  them  trampled  all  out  of  shape  under  the  heels 
of  the  war  lords  of  their  native  lands,  I  have  been  absolutely 
certain  that  Europe  would  some  day  stand  at  God’s  judgment 
bar  and  render  an  account  for  its  inhumanity.  You  can  put 
a  soldier  on  the  back  of  every  peasant  grubbing  in  the  fields. 
Poor  peasant,  he  cannot  help  himself.  You  can  increase 
the  burden  on  him  until  his  back  is  bent,  and  the  light  goes 
out  of  his  eyes,  and  the  hope  dies  out  of  his  heart,  but  you 
must  settle  some  day  with  God !  That  is  what  Europe  is  now 
doing — she  is  settling  with  God.  You  have  seen  a  wonderful 
thing.  You  have  seen  the  Almighty  God  cast  a  whole  con¬ 
tinent  into  hell, 


21 


Militarism  is  the  absolute  negation  of  Christianity.  The 
one  exhibits  a  mailed  fist,  the  other  shows  you  a  hand  that  is 
pierced.  The  one  carries  a  big  stick,  the  other  carries  the 
cross  on  which  the  Prince  of  Glory  died.  The  one  declares 
that  might  makes  right,  the  other  affirms  that  right  makes 
might.  The  one  says  that  the  foundation  of  all  things  is  force, 
the  other  says  that  the  foundation  of  all  things  is  love.^  Mili¬ 
tarism  is  materialism  in  its  deadliest  manifestation.  It  is 
atheism  in  its  most  brutal  and  blatant  incarnation.  It  is  the 
enemy  of  God  and  man.  It  must  be  overthrown.  Every  nation 
which  becomes  its  devotee  is  doomed.  Militaristic  nations 
are  broken  to  pieces  like  potter’s  vessels.  So  did  the  Almighty 
break  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  Persia,  and  Greece,  and  Rome, 
and  so  unless  they  repent  will  he  break  in  fragments  the  so- 
called  great  powers  of  Europe.  He  will,  if  necessary,  con¬ 
vert  the  capitals  of  our  modern  world  into  dust  heaps  like 
those  of  Thebes  and  Memphis,  and  begin  the  world  anew. 
He  will  overturn  and  overturn,  until  he  whose  right  it  is,  shall 
reign.  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  is 
saying  to  the  churches — and  to  the  nations  I 


The  Church  Peace  Union 

{Founded  by  Andrew  Carnegie) 

TRUSTEES 

Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  Arthur  Judsoi^  Brown,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
President  W.  H.  P.  Faunce,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Providence,  R.  I. 
His  Eminence,  James  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York 
Rev.  Frank  O.  Hall,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.D.,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rabbi  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Hamilton  Holt,  LL.D.,  New  York 

Professor  William  I.  Hull,  Ph.D.,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York, 

Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  Frederick  Lynch,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D.,  New  York. 

Marcus  M.  Marks,  New  York 

Dean  Shailer  Mathews,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Edwin  D.  Mead,  M.A.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  William  Pierson  Merrill,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
John  R.  Mott,  LL.D.,  New  York 
George  A.  Plimpton,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Julius  B.  Remensnyder,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
Judge  Henry  Wade  Rogers,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Francis  Lynde  Stetson,  New  York. 

James  J.  Walsh,  M.D.,  New  York. 

Bishop  Luther  B.  Wilson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 


